« … « OK? OK! » For Lolo, not easy to deal with Bébert! In front of the clown and his whimsical dog, children have quickly joined the game. Interaction, laughter, the clown’s array worked well, Place Allende. Different gags, a dog which doesn’t obey and a touch of dark humour managed to catch a family public. »

Le Télégramme, 1August 2013

Night show : a wind of euphoria blew in the covered market

« It’s not that Lolo and Bébert don’t get along… But Bébert, circus dog that he is, is suborn and doesn’t see why he should jump through a circle when he could simply lay nicely on the stage, his nose between his paws…

Lolo, street artist, had to retreat in the covered market to present his hilarious show. »

Le Télégramme, 18 August 2013

Bébert drives his master mad for the children’s greatest delight

« … From 7 pm people gather in front of the hall. It seems that some eccentric man presents a rather funny show with his dog. When one gets nearer the crowd gathered in front of a red carpet… Laurent Serre, alias Lolo Cousins, and Bébert a mischievous dog. If one is nervous and clumsy, the other one is genuinely alert and playful. But you wonder whom? About a hundred children enjoy the dog show and encourage Bébert to make life difficult for his master. »

Nora Moreau, Le Télégramme, 13 August 2010

Bébert and Lolo. Dog or man, who is the master ?

« Lolo is somehow the agent of Bébert Von K., small black dog, pianist, singer and a little acrobat. Lolo is clumsy, dirty and neglected, slicked, slightly Italian and above all, he doesn’t like children. And most of all he has no authority. So that sometimes we don’t know anymore who is the doggy and who is the master among the two …

Le Télégramme, 06 August 2010

THEY PLAY CLOWNS IN HOSPITALS

Doctor Clown. When they enter the rooms, childhood takes over illness.

« … Decked out in an old fashion costume and with an unexpected tie, he has just sung a song next to the ear of little Fatmi, 5 months old. The baby opens wide his eyes and sucks his dummy. « You managed to calm him down! It helped him » said the mother smiling. The clown arrives gently in the gastroenterology ward of the Femme-Mère-Enfant (Woman-Mother-Child) Hospital in Bron (69)… Jean-Pierre Baudelaire’s red nose meets the one of Bergamote in the room shared by two teenager girls. With her orange ballerina pumps and her bonnet with a big flower, the funny lady starts her magic show. Gags and digs string together. One of the teenagers asks the clowns to dance a slow. The other one laughs. Bang! Leaving, Jean-Pierre Baudelaire falls flat on his face. « Being in hospital is no fun. With them it’s a change » comments one of the two girls… »

Muriel Florin - Le Progrès 24 December 2011

« … Professional clown like his 13 other colleagues of the association created in 1995 by the nurse Mireille Imbaud, Laurent Serre took a specific training to grasp the hospital world. Since 2008, the touching tomfoolery of « Lolo », alias Jean-Pierre Baudelaire, allow the little patients to smile again and get their children’s lives back. In the IHOP Léon-Bérard Centre, institute specialised in cancers and leukaemia for children, just like in other hospitals in the area, Laurent Serre tries to communicate with the child and his/her family and to bring him/her to live a moment of pleasure and escape. The clowns improvise according to the wish and the state of the child, but also adjust to the rules of the hospital. Some children are very premature babies. Anyway, those visits have helped a great number of them to better fight illness ».

Le Progrès, 21 January 2011

Les ZACCROS D'MA RUE: Time for street performers !

« … At 5.30 pm in the yard of the CCAS, rue de la Basilique, Bébert and Lolo were number 18 to start their show: a new creation for Laurent Serre and his dog Bébert, from the company Les Cousins. « Complètement à la rue… » How to get round the constant clumsiness of Lolo and the dog jests of Bébert Von K. which will not fail when it has to interpret The massacre of Spring. The amount of work between partners needed to bring a dog to disobey perfectly well can be found in this show, which, of course, has gone crescendo! »

Le Journal du Centre, 10 July 2010

Lolo and his dog Bébert are totally in the street

« … The dog Bébert drives his master Lolo mad, a former member of Archaos, in a tender and smart show

Le Midi-Libre, 03 July 2010

THE STREET ARTS FIND THEIR PUBLIC

Lolo the clown stringed together gags making children and parents laugh.

« … At 8 pm Lolo and his dog Bébert made them roar with laughter for 40 minutes with his show mixing farcical gags and dog training. »

Ouest-France, 1 August 2013

The Cousins Bébert and Lolo make their show. The man is a juggler, clumsy and nervous, the dog is mischievous. A tandem totally in the street (it’s the name of their show) for the greatest pleasure of the audience.

Ouest-France, 06 August 2010

Bébert the dog, I give the orders

« To my left, Bébert Von Karavann, the dog. To my right Lolo from Lyon from the company “Les Cousins”, his real name being Laurent Serre.

Both came to the opening evening to present part of their show. The public gave in to their charm… Shows with animals have become rare. « The contemporary circus, as opposed to the traditional one, let them somehow drop. Animals were considered like beasts of burden. Those shows eventually got a bad reputation, Lolo explains. No question to treat Bébert like that. Both stars have accepted to be interviewed by the Dauphiné with exclusive rights, peer to peer. « If Lolo has written the texts, somehow depending on my reactions, I give the orders all along the show » confirms Bébert. For dog specialists, please note that Bébert, 3 years old, is a schipperke of Belgian origin » Lolo describes him as being a playful runaway.

« He is the star. It took us a whole year to put together the performance but first to create a relation based on confidence. Then we have tested our show with the public. » As a result, 40 minutes of a funny show which leaves us astounded by the artistic performances of Bébert.

To cope with those vagaries, Bébert and Lolo came up with an actor’s trick. Up to you to find out.

Dominique Cheul - Le Dauphiné Libéré 13/08/2010

Virtuoso Mr Bébert

« … The clown Lolo plays with Bébert, a Belgian schipperke doing the exact contrary of what is asked from it… »

Teresa Bruna – AVUI 15/05/2010

Lolo, René and Julot

CIRCUS – CLOWN – They got the rhythm, they slap one another in the face. And from stage/planks to chairs those funny Cousins found their balance.

« Small family enterprise created in 1990 »: this is how the Cousins, trio of clowns recently met near Bangalore (India), introduce themselves on their business card. Worldwide, the Cousins have been it since their beginning. Their partnership started after having met at the Carnaval Plazza, a Tokyo cabaret. Until then René, Julot and Lolo (Christophe Philippe, Philippe Etienne and Laurent Serre under they proper names – roughly a hundred years old together) had worked solo. Between them not a single family link. Cousins by sympathy, they were not born into show business. The Cousins’ good premonition was to understand that it was possible to take clowns out of the tent. First on squares and pavements where their show “And just as well!” is set up in a flash. So they went to dozens of street theatre festivals, from Aurillac (Cantal) to Perth (Australia). If they immediately strike by their difference from the other acrobats, it’s less because of their style (rather understated) than their perfect technique where juggling (Lolo) and balance (Julot) take the leading part and the very structured aspect of the performance in which every second counts. Unsurprisingly, the Cousins are also at ease in a hall. The long version of their show is called «C’est pas dommage! (It’s not a pity)! » and strings together acts borrowed from the ultimate classic repertoire (from most risky ballet to distributing slaps in the face), following each other rapidly while keeping in permanent dialogue with the audience. « Ideas are nothing without the rhythm » says René, the stupefied one with the black tooth, who takes to the tradition of the « resumption clown »: the one who plays the fool between two acts. He is also the blunderer clown opposite to Julot the artistic whiteface and to Lolo the counter clown, trainer at times of a four-pawed terror named Dracula. René is the only one who started his career in theatre, first as comedian and director of shows for children before joining Annie Fratellini’s school for two years. « We don’t present sketches. It’s not written. It’s more like a framework of jokes, very free, in which gags are punch lines one can bring in different manners ». Amongst their models are all the most famous cinema burlesques – the Max Brothers, Laurel and Hardy, Buster Keaton and W. C. Fields – as well as classic clown repertoire which are not amongst the most famous ones. Thus it’s not a violin concerto getting of hand but a trio of classical dancing.

« According to tradition one is not a clown at the age of twenty, one is an acrobat. And then, when one becomes too heavy, one is a porter and eventually when one is too broken, one can become a clown ». Lolo is not an acrobat by training but a juggler. His glasses give him quite naturally the role of the intellectual in the trio, what he doesn’t consider himself in everyday life. His official debuts were with balls in his hands at the Grand Céleste in 1984 before joining Archaos in 1986, where he stayed for three years. « Today I’ve learned to put my ego aside. I juggle more simply and it’s just as well. The aim is to entertain, not to show off. » Julot, the third guy, tightrope walker, doesn’t contradict. His itinerary, started in 1982 at the Cirque de Paris, took him to Jérôme Savary’s Cabaret. His act with a table and four chairs is one of the most spectacular. The importance yet is not there, he says: « The only amusing question is: how to make the masterstroke ridiculous? The technical difficulty must disappear behind the gag. » One could paraphrase « Drôle de Drame »: « Bet won, my dear cousin. »